1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laminated ceramic electronic components such as laminated ceramic capacitors, ceramic multilayer substrates, and laminated ceramic thermistors, and particularly relates to a laminated ceramic electronic component including a ceramic element body including a plurality of effective sections which function as circuit elements, such as capacitor units, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as electronic apparatuses become miniaturized, ceramic electronic components which are implemented on substrates of electronic apparatuses also have been miniaturized. Therefore, various array-type ceramic electronic components, each of which includes a single chip component having a plurality of functions of electronic components, have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-331879 discloses a laminated capacitor array 101 shown in FIG. 9. In the laminated capacitor array 101, first and second laminated capacitor units 103 and 104 are included in a ceramic sintered body 102. The first laminated capacitor unit 103 is configured such that first and second internal electrodes 105 and 106 shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B are laminated on one another through ceramic layers. The second laminated capacitor unit 104 is configured such that third and fourth internal electrodes 107 and 108 are laminated on one another through ceramic layers.
In the laminated capacitor array 101, first and second effective sections constituted by the first and second laminated capacitor units 103 and 104, respectively are included in the ceramic sintered body 102. Therefore, miniaturization is realized.
Note that the first and second laminated capacitor units 103 and 104 are arranged with a gap G interposed therebetween so that crosstalk between the two capacitor units 103 and 104 is prevented from being generated.
However, although the gap G does not include any internal electrodes, the laminated capacitor unit 103 includes internal electrodes 105 and 106 and the laminated capacitor unit 104 includes internal electrodes 107 and 108. Therefore, it is likely that bumps between portions in which the first and second laminated capacitor units 103 and 104 are arranged and a portion of the gap G are generated on upper and lower surfaces of the ceramic sintered body 102 due to thicknesses of the internal electrodes.
When the bumps are generated, smoothness of the upper and lower surfaces of the ceramic sintered body 102 is deteriorated. Therefore, when the laminated capacitor array 101 is to be implemented, the laminated capacitor array 101 may not be reliably sucked and picked up by a mounter.
To address such a problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-153027 discloses a method for forming internal electrodes by printing conductive paste on a ceramic green sheet and thereafter printing ceramic paste in portions around the internal electrodes so that thicknesses of the internal electrodes are substantially equal to thicknesses of the portions around the internal electrodes. Accordingly, a problem of bumps between portions including the internal electrodes and portions around the portions including the internal electrodes is solved.
However, when the ceramic paste is to be printed on the portions around the portions including the internal electrodes formed of the conductive paste, the ceramic paste should be printed so as to reliably contact with the internal electrodes. Otherwise, gaps are generated between the internal electrodes and the ceramic paste. Therefore, the ceramic paste should be printed with considerably high accuracy, resulting in complicated fabrication steps and high fabrication cost.
Furthermore, organic binders included in the conductive paste used to form the internal electrodes may be soluble in solvent included in the ceramic paste, and therefore, shapes of the printed internal electrodes may be deformed. If the shapes of the printed internal electrodes are deformed, it is possible that a desired electric characteristic is not obtained or a structural defect occurs.